maggyrider

I never did a night jump myself, so the following is just based on my common sense: If you want to check out your eyes, go see an eye specialist and let him check out your vision. It's easier, it's probably cheaper and you will get a more objective, better result (and if you discovered a problem yourself by flying up with the plane again, you would have to give the eye specialist a visit anyway). If he discovers a problem, fix it. If not, your problem had nothing to do with your vision, but with your experience or the way the jump was briefed (you know, with 100 jumps, things like this can happen). Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

http://www.pgasus.be/start.php?pg=text&item=mPOD I use this one - completely stowless. Works perfect. EDIT: Regarding experience with the mPod - most of the staff jumpers on my dropzone rely on it. So alltogether there have been about 4000-5000 jumps on it, with zero hard openings due to line dump or premature release of the canopy from the pod, no line-overs, no bag locks, etc. There has been one single malfunction when the pod fell over the nose of the canopy, all magnets alligned on top of each other, caught a single A-line that could not be released anymore and caused the canopy (Velocity 96) to spin violently. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Well that makes sense... Didn't think of that before. Thanks! Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

As it seems the front- and rearrisers in this video (https://www.facebook.com/clifford.steele/videos/10207891790072249/) are connected just below the dive loops. I have never seen anything like this before. Does anyone know the advantage of doing this? Also... F***ing nice turn! Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Yep, the RDS slider is great - I did not expect such a difference but it's worth every cent. Totally recommendable to everybody. The openings are great and I will stay on the 120 for some more time before I downsize again. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Wouldn't the steering line run through both rings then? Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Hi there, I am looking for swoop risers to use on my Vector 3 rig. As the title already says I am not satisfied with my current standard risers anymore, as the guide ring for the steering lines is too low in my opinion and is interfering with inputs to my rear risers. When I grab the rears in the position that feels best for me, the guide ring is exactly below my hands, so the steering line is actually running down from the toggle to the guide ring and then back up to the canopy. I hope this explains my problem. As most manufacturers do not provide any high quality pictures of the risers they offer I did not really find anything suitable until now. And I do not want to order anything when I am not even sure if it's the thing I want. Can anyone of you recommend a riser that has the guide ring mounted close to the softlink and is equipped with an additional loop to set the brakes in the correct position? Ideally the risers are offered with dive loops mounted through the s-links (like the UPT louie loops) and available somewhere between 23 and 25 inches. Low drag option, RSL ring and slider keepers are not needed. EDIT: To give some examples of what I am looking for - https://instagram.com/p/lgu_qcTGEd/ or https://instagram.com/p/mMvhYlzGIT/ Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

I use a Solo II audible in my helmet. I never turn it off - not even during longer jump breaks and battery runtime is usually around 1.5 years (actually never had it run completely empty). The audible gets used a lot when I jump as I do around 500 jumps per year. At the same time I have to say, that I do most of my jumps at one dropzone and my helmet and audible are usually stored there. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

The only advantage of ordering a PD stock canopy is that you have a delivery time of a few days instead of a few weeks. As far as I know this is the same for containers. Stock is not cheaper and you will not safe money by ordering stock. Try to look into some gear bundles from the big dealers instead. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

When I do not jump on a certain day, I can not have an accident jumping on that day. When I jump 15 times on a certain day, I can have an accident 15 times on that day. Of course the risk is higher during the summer, when I jump, and much lower if not equal to the standard persons risk in the winter, when I jump less or not at all. I took the average of a whole year because it is not really possible without a lot of effort to take jump frequency over season into the equation. I said ones risk of dying within the next 12 months is x times higher than the risk of an average non skydiving person in the same timespan - and that is correct. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

The BPA takes the total amount of fatalities in the UK over the total amount of jumps in the UK. The USPA takes the total amount of fatalities in the US over the total amount of jumps in the US. I took the DFV numbers for total amount of fatalities in Germany, excluding fatalities of German jumpers in other countries - the numbers in brackets, (85) over the total amount of jumps in Germany (4.580.865). This is the same calculation method for all three numbers. Dividing the number of fatalities (85) by the number of jumps (4.580.865) gives a probability of 0,000018555 for dying by doing one jump. Multiply this number by 1.000.000 and you get your risk in micromorts (18.55 or actually 18.56 - sorry for that mistake). Using the same calculation method for the BPA you get a risk somewhere between 7,98 and 8,42 micromorts per jump (depending on which of the two numbersets you use). For the USPA you get a risk of 8,85 micromorts per jump (41.900.000 jump, 371 fatalities). The number of jumpable days per year does statistically viewed not affect this value - this should be clear by already seeing that the number of jumpable days is not part of any calculation. I did never calculate the risk of one day of skydiving, only the risk per jump. There might be currency issues causing the higher fatality rate in Germany but this is again something you will not be able to measure. What is of course estimated is that the fatality rate did not really change in the slightly different timespans (BPA - 1995-2014; USPA 2000-2014; DFV 1996-2011) - and I think I am not completely off with this estimation or at least the differences are so minimal that they do not really have any significant influence on the result. Experience is a factor. Like there are many others. And with my high currency I am definitely reducing my risk per jump, but still I do more jumps than other people. So - where's the break even? As long as you can not give me any clear numbers with clear calculations and clear sources, the average is the best and only estimation one can make. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

This is true - of course it would be something that is nice to be taken into account. But you now what? The skydiving world is to small to get reliable data to predict to risk of any of these special activities. Just look at myself. There are many factors that indicate higher risk, but also many factors that indicate lower risk - but in total? No idea... • I do high performance landings • I fly a highly elliptical canopy • My wingload is at 1.6 • I do not use an AAD • I do not use an RSL But • I am highly current (during the summer about 100 jumps per month) • I am under constant supervision of my “teacher” with 15000+ jumps • I only jump on my home dropzone (usually) • I only jump from the same small airplane (usually) • There will never be more than 5 other people around me in the air • I do not do big way trackdives or freefly jumps (4+ people) • I do not do wingsuit jumps • About 20% of my jumps are tandems (as an instructor of course) So... Is my risk higher or lower than the risk of the average skydiver? Can you give any evidence for that (other than the feeling in your stomach)? I can't - and therefore the average skydiver is the best estimation I can give. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Those were exactly my thoughts but I think it is very difficult to get personal experience and behaviour into a trend analysis without getting away from cold facts and mixing too much subjective impressions into it. As already stated - statistics are only valid for the average. And as nobody is average in all perspectives, statistics have no influence or predictive power on ones personal future. There will always be people that are above the calculated risk and there will always be people that are below the calculated risk - but no one can tell for sure for a single person. Everybody can just estimate for himself and I have the feeling that a lot of skydivers overestimate. Maybe this can be regarded as identical or similar to the known issue, that 90% of car drivers consider themselves as above average drivers. Of course this is simply not possible - but still, people believe it. Maybe a lot of us are not as safe as the think they are (myself not excluded). Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

After repeatedly hearing the myth that the most dangerous part of a skydive is the ride in your car to the dropzone and my inner bullshit detector constantly being alerted as soon as I heard this or anything similar, I tried to find some statistical proof for or against that statement. On my research trip I discovered the concept of measuring the risk of a certain event or activity in the unit micromorts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort). To summarize – if an event has a risk of one micromort, your chance of dying while participating in the event is exactly one to one million. From the Wikipedia page about micromorts I gathered the following values: • Travelling 370km (230mi) by car: 1 micromort • Travelling 9,7km (6mi) by motorcycle: 1 micromort • Doing a skydive in the US: 9 micromorts • Doing a skydive in the UK: 8 micromorts • Doing a skydive in Germany: 18,55 micromorts (Source: http://www.dfv.aero/downloads/Jahresvergleich.pdf - why this number is so much higher in Germany is something that I too don’t really understand) So to compare travelling and skydiving, depending on where you live and jump, you would have to travel about • 2960 – 6863,5km (1840 – 4265mi) by car • 77,6 – 179,5km (48 – 111mi) by motorcycle to match the risk of dying in an accident during one single skydive to dying in an accident while travelling to the dropzone. Even if these are average numbers that might differ from person to person and country to country the trend should be clear. Skydiving is so much more dangerous than your trip to the dropzone. I think this myth should be considered as busted. Going deeper into the whole statistical thing I tried to find ways to “measure” which impact skydiving actually has on your probability of dying. The following data is based on numbers from Germany, as I live there and therefore had the least difficulty of finding reliable numbers. In the end of the year 2010 there have been a total of 81.752.000 people living in Germany (1). A total of 852.328 people have died during the following year 2011 (2). The year 2011 has had 365 days which means that a total of 29.839,48 million days have been lived in that year (number of people multiplied with 365). The chance of dying by “living one day in Germany” therefore equals a risk of 28,56 micromorts (number of deaths divided by number of totally lived days multiplied by one million). I now do about 500 jumps per year which gives me an additional risk of dying in one year of skydiving equal to 9275 micromorts (number of jumps per year multiplied with micromorts per jump) – that again increases my risk of dying in one year by a factor of 1,887 (risk of dying in one year with jumping divided by risk of dying in one year without jumping). The risk that I die during the next twelve months is about 88,7% higher than the risk of the average German person dying in the same time. This might sound like not too much of a risk, especially at my jump numbers per year – but if you look into the total number of deaths, you will discover that only 32.988 of the 852.328 deaths are caused by unnatural causes – accidents, crimes, suicides, etc. (2). Most of the deaths in this statistics are older people dying for natural causes and health problems. So, let’s calculate again – the risk of dying in one day by an unnatural cause is about 1,106 micromorts (number of unnatural deaths per year divided by number of totally lived days multiplied by one million). Adding the additional risk of my 500 jumps per year, my total risk of dying in one year has increased by a factor of 23,98 over the risk of someone that is not jumping (risk of dying in one year with jumping divided by risk of dying in one year without jumping). I am almost 24 times more likely to die by accident than the average German person. This number seemed extremely high – almost unrealistic, but numbers don’t lie. What bothered me was that I did not consider the chance of dying by a natural cause (cancer, infection, etc. – I simply did not know how high the probability for something like this is in my age, so I did not know how far my thoughts and numbers were off). Let’s step back from taking only unnatural deaths and consider the total amount of deaths again, including natural causes. To get rid of the completely normal deaths of older people, I decided to look at deaths per year per age group. I myself am 23 years old and am therefore part of the 20-29 year olds, which comprises 9.947.000 people in Germany, living a total of 3.360,655 million days per year (number of people multiplied with 365). In the year 2011 a total of 2857 people from this age group has died (3) – all causes of death combined. So if you are a 20-29 year old and live for one day in Germany you are exposed to a total risk of dying equal to 0,85 micromorts (number of deaths divided by number of totally lived days multiplied by one million). Comparing myself to a non-jumper of the same age group I have a 30,9 times higher probability of dying – not considering the exact reason. While I originally expected the number to go down in comparison to the previous calculation, the opposite happened. Of course I know, that not everbody is doing 500 jumps per year and not everybody is from the same age group as I am, so following are few calculations based on an estimation of 100 jumps per year in Germany: • 20-29 year olds: 7,0 times higher probability of dying within one year • 30-39 year olds: 5,4 times higher probability of dying within one year • 40-49 year olds: 2,7 times higher probability of dying within one year • 50-59 year olds: 1,6 times higher probability of dying within one year Of course as you could already see in the comparison right at the beginning, skydiving in Germany seems to be much more dangerous than skydiving in the US or the UK (I still don’t know why) and I am pretty sure that “basic” living in Germany is less dangerous than in the US or UK. Alltogether the increase of risk by skydiving might come down a bit more and statistics will always stay statistics. Also, I am fully aware, that the statistical calculations are not 100% correct, but the approximations done only cause falsifications in the 2nd or 3rd digit after the comma. There is no average person and there will never be – so nobody will be able to predict their personal future based on these numbers, but the trend should be clear. While we consider skydiving to be super safe and completely controllable, it is not. It is still f***ing dangerous (even if not as dangerous as 30 years ago) – and I believe that is something we have banned from our mindsets and tend to forget to tell. Don’t be so casual about the risks you are taking - I know them and I accept them, but I guess not everybody is like that! Be aware of what you are doing – and please, don’t give rookies the impression, that driving their car to the dropzone is more dangerous than the skydives they are doing! Sources: (1) http://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/zahlen-und-fakten/soziale-situation-in-deutschland/61538/altersgruppen (2) https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikationen/Thematisch/Gesundheit/Todesursachen/Todesursachen2120400117004?__blob=publicationFile (3) https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online/data;jsessionid=EB6EC773C665904C219D19973DEE5D54.tomcat_GO_2_2?operation=ergebnistabelleUmfang&levelindex=2&levelid=1437993011892&downloadname=12613-0003 EDIT: Typos... Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Maybe this is a little bit off-topic - but am I the only one who thinks that somebody who climbs to the strut like the guy in the video should have no business even thinking about going there? Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

I too have a Bonehead Optik with a DSLR on top (http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4657329#4657329) and used an X-Shut mount. See http://www.x-shut.com/index.php/de/x-shut/xshut-base/18-xshut-helm and http://www.x-shut.com/index.php/de/x-shut/xshut-cross/11-xshut-stativkreuz-va. What I really like about it is that when the DSLR is not installed, the mount is completely flat and integrated into the helmet, so there is not even a tiny snag hazard. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

So how long does it take you to reinstall the slider after landing? While I will ask Frank from Lookma, I would prefer to have my questions answered by somebody that can give an impartial opinion. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

I am thinking about getting a removable slider for my Katana 120 - mainly not for performance reasons but rather because I really hate the handling of the current slider after opening and the limitiations of my field of view as well as the slider pressing against my arms while leaning forward in the harness while have my hands all the way up or on the rears. I have already seen the PD removable slider live and know the handling and the additional time required to reinstall it but would prefer the Lookma slider as I live in Germany, the delivery time is shorter, there is no PD RS for Katanas, the price is lower, etc. Can anybody with personal experience give an estimation on the time needed to reinstall the slider after landing? (I do a lot of work jumps so packing time is a big issue for me) Also I have seen that most of the other removable sliders on the market use yellow cable to fix the slider grommets to the actual slider while the Lookma slider relies on a standard line. Has anybody ever experienced any problems with this beeing not reliable? If - coincidentally - somebody is jumping a Katana 120 with a Lookma slider - do you have any recommendations on sizing or is the PD standard size (20x31 inches) fine? Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

I would say in the bigger sizes the difference should be about one downsize (188 ZPX 168 ZP) and in the smaller sizes about two steps (132 ZPX 117 ZP) as the steps between two sizes are quite small. Please note that the Aerodyne ZP is (at least subjectively) thicker than ZP of other manufacturers. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

I have been jumping Pilots for the last 500 jumps (150-140-132, WL 1.28-1.45). As I was starting to do lots of front riser landings (double fronts and 90 degree turns) I noticed that I had quite some tail deflection and also buckling when I exceeded a certain input level on the fronts. To get completely rid of the input I had to extend the steering lines by about 4 inches on my current 132 (although I should mention that I bought the canopy used with about 50 jumps on it and do not know if there have been any changes made before - anyways I jumped a 132 Pilot of a fellow jumper some time ago and the flarepoint was definitely much, much higher on his canopy). While it is quite an extreme difference to some other canopies I tested and jumped and you really have to flare all the way to get the most out of the canopy it is definitely possible to get nice stopping power even in downwinds around 15 knots. If anyone of you has problems with hard landings I suppose you let one of your friends film you on landing and check if you really use every inch you have and also do not let your hands up anymore once you are just a few inches above the ground (this is a mistake I notice very regularly on students and novice jumpers). The pilot is a very nice and possibly one of the greatest student transition and intermediate canopies out there and a lack of flarepower is probably caused by bad technique and not bad material. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Yeah I know that thread already - that's where I first discovered the video Too bad there isn't any more information yet. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Shortly after the official release of the PD Valkyrie there has been this Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nkok0Tn0z4) posted. I haven't heard any news about this canopy since then, which seems to feature the new Schuman inspired planform on a non-crossbraced design. Does anybody have rumours, pictures or any other news to satisfy my curiosity? Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

While the 210ZPX might fit into the container - why do you want to do it? What kind of reserve are you going to put into your rig? Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... If you buy something right after it gets released you are basically paying for an advanced prototype. Don't complain about a prototype that has issues. But maybe that's the price for having the newest bling and I just don't have enough style to get it. Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.

Did you ever think about joining Sofpidarf? They will teach you and represent exactly your ideas! No seriously... Surviving the 50 jumps you made is pure luck - continue like that and you will be dead within a year. You do not learn skydiving or even basejumping from the internet. That's not brave, that's not smart, that's not pioneering - that's just plain stupid. I don't know how the officials handle it at your place but I suppose an accident or a fatality would throw civil skydiving in China quite a few steps back. Think about it! Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.